I'm an adult, black female, age 28, recently diagnosed with type 2&nbsp diabetes. What does my hemoglobin A1c blood test result mean? Is this good or bad?

Answer:

You have asked a good question and an important one. Hemoglobin A1c is a test that will tell you the average blood sugar in your body over the last 60-90 days. See HbA1c for more information on this. This test does not replace blood sugar testing at home, but is an additional tool to manage your diabetes well over time. If most of your blood sugars before meals fall into target range of less than 120 mg/dl [6.7 mmol/L] and most of your one-hour after eating blood sugars fall into a target range of less than 180 mg/dl [10 mmol/L], the average blood sugar will likely be about of 150mg/dl [8.3 mmol/L] which is reflected by a hemoglobin A1c of 7% or less (or less than 1% above the normal range in the lab that does the test). This test should be done every three months to watch the progress of your management.

Last Updated: Tuesday April 06, 2010 15:09:14
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